Contextual offers - how do they work please?

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DD is just about to enter sixth form at our local school. She will be studying for A levels and hoping to be heading for university afterwards.

I have heard that some universities make slightly lower offers to students from some state schools.

Can anyone explain how contextual offers work and whether DD will need to apply for a contextual offer please?

DD school has some kind of deal/ relationship with Derby Uni and Nottingham Trent Uni. They seem to really sell it to them and get them to attend the summer schools. The general consensus of dd school was for its pupils to maximise and get as much ucas points as possible making it compulsory for them to do A levels in general studies and critical thinking, bump up those points??. There's no real drive to aim higher. They just want them to go to ucas point entry type uni. Not inspiring kids to go to the higher tier uni requiring grades. So it ends up that they're never up to speed or willing to learn what is required on how the application to them might be different to a lower tafiff uni. In dd case, It was easier to try and put her off going, saying that she would give herself a nervous breakdown trying to achieve a straight A grade offer. In reality they were inexperienced and it would require too much work and effort on their part. Some schools and teachers just don't have that will or fighting spirit to get their pupils into a very good uni. Since It's not in their job description or neither are they obligated to do so. Plus limited resources and man power means they're too stretched to want to even care.

That is interesting, bojorojo, similar happened to DD1. Lots of promotion of the local university along with comments about how convenient it is to be at a uni close to home.

I stil don't understand why the teenagers don't know the differences between good and not so good unversities however. It just takes about 65 minutes of internet searching to get the information. If my 17 year olds can find it out what stops a bright child in a sink school doing that web search, assuming they have access to the internet? It takes about 15 minutes to find out which universities the bar and best law firms hire from for example so not really a state secret that if you go to the local ex poly you haven't a hope in hell.

I think a lot of students are clued up they will do the research etc. But might not get the right support from school to make a good application. Be it school reference to personal statement, interviews to Step exams, TSA test etc..

Sigh Xenia not again. Do you really have no comprehension at all that in order for 17 years olds to be able to google something they have to actually know that is something to be aware of in the first place. They have to understand that some law firms have a list of universities. They have to know there is a difference between RG and post 92.

Did it also not occur to you that maybe they don't want to join a magic circle firm? And maybe they don't want to leave their home town for family reasons.

Not everyone is you thank god. Some people aren't particularly money motivated. A bit of self awareness would be useful...

what stops a bright child in a sink school doing that web search, assuming they have access to the internet?

• knowing there is something to know
• knowing there is a difference between ranking of universities
• knowing which advice to take and which to discard. When it comes to A level choice do you believe what you have read on the internet or what your teachers are telling you?

This is the whole point about why I started this thread. My DD attends a sink school but I want to make sure she has the best chance to achieve her potential.

I think there is a lot of evidence to suggest that parents who either do not know much about university, or have no ambition for their children, together with lack of support and understanding from schools means that some children do not aim high enough. I have no problem with Derby, Sheffield Hallam or Nottingham Trent, but if the young person could have gone to Oxford or Durham, is it fair the local university is promoted over a university of a higher standing? Many parents really do not know that these places are accessible. My BIL, on a visit to Oxford, told my DN that it was not for the likes of them!! What hope is there if children are told they should not aspire to this? Especially if they are bright. Sadly children do take poor advice from parents and teachers because they have little else to go on and these people have the biggest impact on the children. I think good teachers have always made time to nurture and advise pupils, in whatever they want to do. It is very sad if they think anywhere is good enough.

I don't know if it is relevant, but if anyones child is interested:

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11801902/Clearing-Top-British-universities-dropping-grades-as-they-struggle-to-fill-places.html
This linked above says there are some good universities with clearing places left.

www.sgul.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/clearing
St George's linked above has 5 year medical courses among others.

As the universities have been able to expand, they are all chasing the same higher ability students! Of course if you have accepted any place university, clearing won't matter if you don't understand the need to aim higher.

I thought some people might like to aim higher than they originally intended through clearing, if that is possible.

I think there was an article in the Times two days ago about people doing that.

That's why it's a good thread so parents at least can understand what universities are better or different from others and help the children make wise choices. Yes I agree if you don't know what to look for or assume all universities are equal then you might not find information out on a google search but bright children in bad schools do often do those searches so hopefully now the internet is here it will be easier for all teenagers to do their research.

1 in 4 will get A or A* in A level this year today's Times says. I just told one of my teenagers that. He said it's because children have much higher standards now . In my day neighbours came up to me in the street because I got AAB and had the best resultsin the school and said I ought to be trying for Oxbridge as those grades were so rare and indeed most people at my school didn't even do A level.

I think also the rise in A and A* can be attributed to vast amount of resources available online. Especially for subjects in maths and sciences, You Tube videos in those have been a life saver for dd. Although in humanities/essay subjects where there's elements of subjectivity, having a good teacher in those areas are really important. Good teaching, quality of marking and informative /critical feed backs is vital. I'm generalising but I would say going to a sink school, kids can still do very well with maths and sciences by self teach use online resources with a not so good teacher. But it will be hit and miss on essay subjects.